‘Paranormal Activity’ Director Reveals Added Scenes, Tweaked Ending

When a movie is picked up at a film festival, it’s typical for the distributor to make some cuts and other changes. Surprise hit “Paranormal Activity”
was no exception, having been altered slightly following Paramount’s purchase of the horror flick at the Slamdance Film Festival last year.

“There has actually been a few scenes that were added since then,” writer/director Oren Peli told MTV News. “And there’ve been a few things that have been removed or trimmed that were either unnecessary or just slowing down the movie.”

“The original ending that I shot was different,” he said at the time. “And it was well-received by some but not all. So when the studio got involved, one of the things that we wanted to try and improve was the ending. We tried a couple of different endings, including the one you see now, and that’s the one that by far worked out the best. So we were very happy to stick with it.”

More recently, Peli told us about two entirely new scenes that were added to the film since its original festival run. Combined, they seem indicative of what Hollywood always wants more of in scary movies: quick thrills and sex. “One is the keys in the very first night,” Peli revealed. “People who’ve seen the movie know what I’m talking about.”

Without giving anything away, the scene he’s referring to takes place early on and involves the first freaky moment of the film. Its inclusion benefits the film by frightening the audience ever so slightly more immediately.

“And the one other scene, we’re calling it ‘sexy time,’ ” Peli continued. “Where they are sort of doing it, but you’re not seeing it. You’re seeing just before and after. That was a new scene.”

This addition was clearly about more than the idea that sex sells. One of things “Paranormal Activity” has going for it is a big helping of humor. A running joke centers on the idea of making a sex tape with the video camera that’s meant exclusively for documenting the haunting. This “sexy time” scene is something of a punch line for those jokes.